Feeling The Heat

Past Fires Singe Miami's Riley

November 06, 1996|By Sam Smith, Tribune Pro Basketball Writer.

Pat Riley lives in a $6 million house, and his tan is deep and rich, as it was back in the L.A. days. Sometimes when he's home he might take a walk across the bridge that spans his swimming pool, then wait for the limousine to pick him up for the short ride to Miami Arena, where the Bulls will play the Heat Wednesday.

But if you really know Pat Riley, you will feel sorry for him.

Sure, he has wealth and position as coach, president and part owner of the Heat. Companies still call all the time to offer him $45,000 to speak to their groups. Hollywood stars still court him.

But all Pat Riley wants to do is win basketball games, win another championship, something he hasn't done in almost a decade.

You can feel sorry for Pat Riley because he probably never will again, at least not during his stated five-year term as Heat coach.

The NBA ensured that last summer when it reversed the Heat's signing of Bullets free agent Juwan Howard. It effectively overturned the Heat's entire building plan for the rest of the decade and, because of salary-cap constraints, virtually precludes the Heat from being able to add another star player.

"It was the team we had planned to build all year long," Riley said of the Howard signing. "We were committed to getting two guys who were the third and fourth best (the Heat rated only Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal ahead of Alonzo Mourning and Howard). We did that within the rules of the collective bargaining agreement and it was taken away from us.

"I feel good about our team, we're working hard and improving, but that's not the team we wanted to build," Riley said. "That team gave us a chance to be contenders. This was a chance for this franchise to be great. We took a risk of being good for a long time or bad for a long time. Now we have to find a different way."

But with a competitive team that is unlikely to get a high draft choice, and an inability to get significantly below the salary cap to sign free agents, it will be difficult for the Heat to add a star-level player.

And NBA history shows teams need two high quality stars, and often three, to win a title.

This was the Heat's summer to accomplish that. Riley took a chance. He got the Heat below the salary cap. But, in the end, he could only keep his own free agent, Mourning, who has not shown an ability to lead a team.

"Our whole approach now will be to try to create more room (under the salary cap), risk making trades for a young player," Riley said. "We have to get lucky with a draft choice, develop young players and maybe make a timely trade."

All of which is more hope than reality.

But Riley's and the Heat's story is more than just an opportunity passed or botched.

Some would call it a Machiavellian tale of jealousy, duplicity and revenge. It is a story of many striking back at Riley, whose coaching success has been unparalleled in the NBA, and at Heat owner Micky Arison, who was effectively putting together a team that would always run at a loss.

With Mourning and Howard both making more than $100 million over seven years, the Heat would never be able to make a profit based on ticket sales and other income. This was not an economic precedent other owners would like.

Also, Riley had defied the league many times before. In Los Angeles he received a major fine for not playing his starters in a meaningless last game of the season, then jumped his contract with the Knicks, resulting in a fine and loss of draft choice for the Heat.

And by summer's end, Riley was being threatened with a one-year suspension and even the loss of Mourning if he continued to contest the decision to return Howard to Washington.

"I think the animosity had built up over the last couple of years against Pat Riley and Micky Arison," Mourning said. "Micky Arison is a young owner with a lot of money and Pat Riley has won everywhere he goes. When he left the Knicks, the people in New York were kind of ticked off.

"With the tampering, Micky pays the ($1 million) fine like it's nothing and you've got a lot of front office people envious. Pat Riley leaves the Knicks and 11 months later he's got a great team. They were saying, `How can this happen?' "

It wouldn't.

Not that Riley's team is bad. With a recovered Tim Hardaway and veteran Dan Majerle, they should be a solid playoff contender, but stuck in mediocrity.

Riley saw a team anchored by Mourning, Howard and perhaps Gary Payton or another young star. He was about to pull it off when the league intervened.

It began July 11 when the moratorium on signing free agents was lifted and the Bullets low-balled Howard, if a $78 million, seven-year deal can be considered an insult.

Howard, the former Chicago Vocational star, was considered the top non-Shaquille O'Neal free-agent prize of the summer, and at least three teams already had topped the Bullets' offer.

At the same time, Riley asked Mourning to take a one-year deal so he could also sign Payton. Mourning refused.